In 2010 Jannes Priem visited for the first time after his return from Germany Kamp Amersfoort. There he met Anne Littlejohn, who put their heart and soul to the relatives of former prisoner of war camp in Amersfoort. Contact Remco Reiding by Annemiek arose, dedicated many years to the Russian Field of Honour at Camp Amersfoort. His extraordinary story and quest was chronicled in his book "Child of the cemetery’ and in a number of documentaries.
www.russisch-ereveld.nl and www.kindvanhetereveld.nl
Remco Reiding in Pauw & Witteman (11-04-2012)
Watch the show: Pauw and Witteman
Child of the Field of Honor
In the recently published book Child of the Field of Honor, news reporter (o.a. Financieel Dagblad and BNR) and researcher Remco Reiding impressively report of the quest that his life is largely given. Fourteen years Reiding doing research on the families of the 865 Soviet soldier, buried at the Russian Field of Honour in Leusden. Meanwhile he has to 175 Russian soldiers, the survivors managed to trace. The quest takes forever continue.
In 1998 Reiding visited as a reporter of the Amersfoort Courant the cemetery for the first time. It struck him that a family member at the cemetery was never reached, for the simple reason that they did not know where their husband or father buried. From that moment he did research for two years in tens of thousands of documents, of the Dutch Institute for War Documentation to the archives of the Russian secret service. Since then, the search for survivors become his life fulfillment.
in Pauw & Witteman does Remco Reiding account of his impressive quest and consequent book. Remco Reiding works since 2004 as Moscow correspondent for Time, Financial Times, BNR and the Journalist. He is also a researcher at Dutch Institute for War Documentation. Preparation was nominated twice for the Golden Pennetje, the prize for young journalists songwriting.
Remco Reiding in Creator & Co (04-05-2012)
Watch the show: Creator & Co
Stichting Russian Ereveld
On 4 May remembering all deaths in the Netherlands or elsewhere in the world have fallen since the outbreak of the Second World War. Although it is more than sixty years since the war ended, are still not told any stories from that period.
As the stories of the 865 Russian soldiers in the cemetery Russian Field of Honour in Leusden buried. Even the Russian relatives of these dead shall not know the stories; indeed: many of them do not even know their fathers are buried in the Netherlands.
Remco Reiding was 22-year-old journalism student just back from his first trip to Russia, when he learned of the existence of the Russian Field of Honour. Walking along the long rows of graves, he wondered who the soldiers who were, how they ended up in the Netherlands and who their relatives were. It is the mission of Remco to get this Ereveld from oblivion and give the soldiers a face. There follows a long search through dusty archives and to the ends of the former Soviet Union. Because that's where the stragglers: the wives, siblings and children of the soldiers who grew up without a father.
The result is impressive: 55 years after the end of the war found Remco across the former Soviet Union 183 families and there are at 4 May at the cemetery in Leusden relatives of the soldiers with flowers in their hands at the grave of their father.
Meanwhile Remco married to a Russian woman, and he lives in Moscow. But his quest continues. Reporter Yvonne Pelgrum traveled along with Remco in the former Soviet Union. They meet a woman who 2010 first heard where her father was buried. Which meant for her? She also met a woman who recently heard from Remco that her father is buried in Netherlands: they will be his tomb in May for the first visit.
Presentation: Jacobine Geel.
